Fairfield dentist to prison

Fairfield dentist Dr. Walter L. Dawkins has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after entering guilty pleas to one count of health care fraud and two counts of illegal dispensation of a schedule II controlled substance, hydrocodone.

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The Carmi Times - Carmi, IL

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Posted Dec. 25, 2012 at 12:00 PM

Posted Dec. 25, 2012 at 12:00 PM

Fairfield dentist Dr. Walter L. Dawkins has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after entering guilty pleas to one count of health care fraud and two counts of illegal dispensation of a schedule II controlled substance, hydrocodone.

Dawkins, 60, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Benton. A resident of Mount Vernon, Ill., he maintained a dental practice on West Main Street in downtown Fairfield.

WFIW Radio said Dawkins will also have to serve an additional three years of supervised release once he is out of jail.

District Judge J. Phil Gilbert also ordered Dawkins to pay a $900 fine, a $300 special assessment and $1,242 in restitution.

In a stipulation of facts filed in the case, Dr. Dawkins admitted that in late Feb. 2012 he telephoned a prescription to the CVS Pharmacy in Centralia in the name of Janet Douglas for 80 tablets of hydrocodone.

Dawkins informed pharmacy staff members that the prescription was legitimate "even though he knew it was not," according to court filings. "Dawkins told his friend, Dwight Ewing, to pick up the prescription. Ewing was then arrested after he picked up the prescription and had another prescription in the name of Jacob Green that Dawkins had provided him."

In the stipulation, it was revealed that Dawkins had written more than 200 fraudulent prescriptions for some 10,000 hydrocodone pills.

Dawkins remains free on bond and has agreed to voluntarily surrender as notified by the U.S. Marshal to a designated prison. During the three years of supervised release, Dawkins cannot reapply for his controlled substance privileges through the DEA.